As our last big classroom interest of birds began to fade, the children in Preschool 1 expanded their interest to animals and insects that fly.
Their curiosity leads us to butterflies. As a team we decided to purchase a butterfly kit to see if we could care for caterpillars through their life cycle. It all began with eggs that quickly hatched into caterpillars. The caterpillars then turned into their chrysalis or pupa (cacoon) as the children referred to them. Then they finally became beautiful butterflies called Painted Lady. The children created art pieces throughout the various stages of the butterfly. We used our imagination and pretended to be wrapped in our own pupa (blanket) all cozy like the caterpillars do as they prepare for the next change. They also created mirror image painting resembling a butterfly. We learned that moths and butterflies share certain features. Antennae, compound eyes, thorax(body). They also have a "probosas" (tongues) to drink and taste flowers or fruit with. They both also really enjoy the sweetness of banana and oranges!
When doing our research, we realized there are many different types of butterflies that we don't see every day. We would be interested to know if any of our classroom families have had the same opportunity as their children to experience the life cycle of the butterfly and release it? There are so many great opportunities and learning experiences for children to explore. We look forward to seeing how our next classroom interests evolves from what we've learned and what we want to learn next!
